International Conference on Structures and Architecture(1ª.2010.Guimarães, Portugal)[Abstract] The paper presents two buildings solved with masonry walls: a family house in
Betanzos and a multi-storey apartment building located at Lugo. The structure of the first one is
solved by load-bearing walls of precast concrete blocks that arise from an elevated floor slab.
The concrete block, though hidden, provides housing modulating, simplifying the tasks of construction,
the wholeness of the building as well as guarantees other physical properties (fire resistance,
thermal inertia, sound insulation). The second building is a residential building, which
has four floors (the fourth one under the roof) built on a small site. There is a real ‘tour de force’
in this building project whose load-bearing walls of brickwork (perforated klinker) solve both
structural requirement and thermal insulation of the façade with a reduced thickness. Through
these examples, we offer an overview of various aspects relating to the materialization of the architectur
